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Jacksonville earns volunteering honors

Proof that Jacksonville is a friendly place, filled with special people, comes from a recent new honor.

The city ranked No. 5 in the nation in volunteering among large cities. Our citizens may be tight with taxes, but they’re not skinflints when it comes to helping each other. The ranking came from the report “Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2012,” which is “the most comprehensive look at volunteering and civic life in the 50 states and 51 cities across the country.”

The Corporation for National and Community Service ranked the states and the top 51 largest cities and metro areas.

“Volunteering and civic engagement are the cornerstone of a strong nation,” the group reported.

“Citizens working together and talking to each other help solve problems and make their communities better places to live and work.”

That is most apparent in Jacksonville, one of the best volunteer cities in the nation.

While the state of Florida ranked No. 45 in volunteering, little old Jacksonville did itself proud.

A good groupThe top cities in order: Minneapolis-St. Paul, Rochester, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Jacksonville.

Tampa was No. 30, Orlando was No. 48.

For Judy Smith, who runs HandsOn Jacksonville, this is old news. After all, she lives with all the volunteer activity and can take credit for helping to stimulate it. She led the former Volunteer Jacksonville into its more proactive role as part of the HandsOn network.

She told the Times-Union it was “mind boggling” to be linked to those elite cities at the top of the list.

Meanwhile, Americans as a whole are volunteering more.

“More Americans volunteered in 2011 than in any year since 2005,” reported the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Two out of three citizens (65.1 percent, or 143.7 million citizens) served their communities by doing favors for and helping out their neighbors, an increase of 9.5 percentage points from last year,

Also more than half (56.7 percent) trusted all or most of the people in their neighborhood.

All in all, this is just another reason why Jacksonville is a special place. People are helping people but not asking for much credit.

But that’s why much of what makes Jacksonville special is underappreciated elsewhere.